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REMARKS 




J 



Senator JOHN L. WILSON 



OF WASHINGTON. 



SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES. 



May 6, 1S97, and Aprii, 4 and 5, 1S9S, 



THE MODIFICATION AND REPEAL OF THE FORESTRY 
RESERVE ORDER OF FEBRUARY 22, 1897= 



WASHINGTOM. 

189S, 






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E E M A E K S 

OF 

SENATOIl JOHN L. WILSON, 

OP WASHINGTON, 

On the modification and repeal of the forestry reserve order of February 23 

1897. 

3Iay 6, 1S97. 

Mr. WILSON. I do not know, Mr. President, that anything 
can be added to the statements made at the previous session of 
Congress relative to the withdrawal of February 32, 1897. 1 can 
not speak, sir, for reservations and withdrawals made in other 
States, but I desire to say a single word, and a word only, relative 
to the withdrawals that have taken place in the State of Wash- 
ington. 

The order made by the President was a drastic one so far as it 
affected my people. While the Senator from South Dakota [Mr. 
Pettigrew] speaks feelingly of the 1,000,000 acres withdrawn in 
his State, an area of over 8,000,000 acres of land has been with- 
drawn from settlement and development in the State of Washing- 
ton — an area larger than the State of Massachusetts and probably 
twice as large as the State of Connecticut. In one county, while 
this commission composed of scientific gentlemen was declaring 
that there were no entries of any sort, an abstract of title was filed 
Avith the Secretary of the Interior, showing over 4,600 mineral 
locations, upon which §3,000,000 worth of work has already been 
performed, while one corporation, the Monte Cristo syndicate, 
has expended in the development of its property and in the build- 
ing of its railroad over $4,000,000, an aggregate of over $6,000,000 
in one county in which "there were no entries." 

I do not know why the order should have been made as to the 
State of Washington. All of our rivers flow directly into Puget 
Sound. The two great rivers of the State— the Skagit and the 
Columbia — have their sources in British Columbia, and all of the 
other rivers have a perpetual and everlasting supply, until time 
shall be no more, from the glaciers of Mount Rauier. In addition 
to that, Mr. President, we have an annual rainfall in western 
Washington of 108 inches. 

So, Mr. President, it would se^m that there was no necessity, so 
far as preserving the watershed in western Washington is con- 
cerned, for this withdrawal. Again, it comes forty-five years too 
late. All the timber lands of western Washington that ai-e mer- 
chantable are within 25 miles of the waters of Puget Sound. The 
timber lands withdrawn by this order do not contain merchant- 
able timber. They only have their value, if any, for mining pur- 
poses. They do not prevent the flow of the water from the 
melting snow, for the undergrowth of pitch pine that comes up is 
better for that purpose than the larger timber. 

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What tliey do complain of is that their material interests — those 
things that affect their prosperity and advancement, nay their 
very existence as Commonwealths — shall be disposed of by the 
stroke of pen , as thoiagh we were mere provinces and not sover- 
eign States of this great Union. 

Mr. President, I think this order extremely unfortunate. It 
would seem that it was Impossible for the peoi^le west of the Mis- 
souri River to develop their own domain and their own country 
in their own way. We have never had that opportunity. The 
people who first settled New England came and took thousands of 
acres of land and developed them as they saw fit, and the people 
who passed from New England across the Allegheny Mountains 
and set tied in the Mississippi Valley took up their lands at a dol- 
lar and a quarter an acre without those restrictions required un- 
der the homestead act of 1860. Our people have had to go forward 
and develop their country by law, and they have observed the law 
in so far as it has been possible for any citizen to do so. They do 
not comjjlain of this. It is right and proper and just. 

Mr. President, supposing this order is not modified or revoked, 
what are you going to do about it? We have valuable improve- 
ments there; the people have expended large sums of money; they 
have gone on and developed these mineral locations; they have 
built villages; they have built railroads; they have done all of 
these things under the law; they are going to stay there; they are 
going to use that timber; and what are you going to do about it? 
What can you do about it? 

I recollect very well a few years ago a special agent of the Gen- 
eral Land Office came to our town who said he was going over to 
investigate some timber-land depredations on Badger Mountain. 
I said to him, "When you get over there, you will find a very 
beautiful valley of 800,000 acres of land, and you can see that 
every farmhouse and all the buildings there are built of timber 
taken from Badger Mountain." I said, "You go to the town of 
Waterville, with a thousand people, and j-ou will find the court- 
house and all the buildings there are built from timber taken from 
Badger Mountain; and if you think you can get a verdict, you had 
better try it." He did try it, but he did not succeed. So you will 
fail on this. We must have the timber to develop those lands. 
Why should we be everlastingly and eternally harassed and an- 
noved and bedeviled by these scientific gentlemen from Harvard 
College? 

I recall, Mr. President, that a great many years ago a very dis- 
tinguished and very able gentleman from Massachusetts, in a cel- 
ebrated oration delivered in the city of Boston, spoke of that 
Western country, and declared that — 

By a presumptuous assertion of a disputed claim to worthless territory 
beyond the Rocky Mountains we have kindled anew on the iearth of our 
mother country the smothered fires of a hostile strife. 

What to-day is that worthless country upon the other side of the 
Rocky Mountains? It includes all the lands between the Colum- 
bia River and 54° 40' north latitude. Had we maintained our po- 
sition then, the Eraser River would have been an American river, 
the city of Victoria would have been an American city, and Great 
Britain would have been impededin her progress across the con- 
tinent with her railway. So we do not always learn the facts of 
that Western country from these talented and learned scientific 
gentlemen. 
S271 



I have here the testimony taken before the Secretary of the In- 
terior, including that of Professor Sergeant in regard to their visit 
to these reservations. Mr. President, if you would read that testi- 
mony, if anyone would read that testimonj^, he would be impressed 
by the very limited visits made to these reservations. They admit 
that they had no knowledge, that they hurried through the coun- 
try in Pullman palace cars, and made no observation of the great 
injustice they were about to commit against the people of my sec- 
tion. There it is, exhibiting not a single excuse, not a single reason 
given by these able gentlemen for this withdrawal. 

Mr. President, we in the Western country do not desire to do 
anything that is not proper, that is not right. We only ask for 
equal and exact justice; we only ask to help develop the Union of 
the States. We in the West know no North, we know no South, 
we know no East, we know no West; we know nothing but the 
Union— and to that we are devoted. 

Mr. President, I am of the West. I know something of its pos- 
sibilities, of its products, and of its people. I have seen what was 
once considered an arid waste pass from a sea of grasses to great 
cities, with schools and colleges, civilization and wealth. Sup- 
pose these forest reservations had been made years ago, and that 
these withdrawals had been made in California, would the §1,500,- 
000,000 of gold have been produced in that State? And let it be 
remembered that California is as large as New York, Pennsyl- 
vania, and all New England. 

If such withdrawal had been made in Idaho, would she have 
contributed her $200,000,000 of gold and silver to our national 
wealth? And Idaho is nine times as large as Vermont. Had the 
mountainous regions of Montana been withdrawn, would she have 
given us her $35,000,000 yearly of the precious metals? And Mon- 
tana is as large as Greece, Italy, and Belgium combined. 

All this development throughout these hills and mountains has 
been by the men who struggle and push forward and locate these 
mineral claims. All this progress has been made in a country 
which a few years ago was considered an arid country, and is 
to-day adding yearly sis hundred millions in cereals to the mar- 
kets of the world. This country, beginning with Dakota on the 
East, that in 1870 had only seven himdred millions of taxable 
property, in 1890 had upon the tax lists of their States over $8,500,- 
000,000 of taxable property. This country, that in 1860 had no 
railroad, in 1890 had more railroads than all the country east of 
the Alleghany Mountains had in 1870. 

A wonderful development has been made, a wonderful growth 
has come about. It was not done by silver; it was not done by 
gold; it was not accomplished by paper money; but it was accom- 
plished by the energy, the industry, the perseverance, the trials, 
the self-denials of the hardy pioneers who have blazed the i)athway 
of civilization into a magnificent highway and built upon the 
other side of the Rocky Mountains an empire for you and for me. 
[Manifestations of applause in the galleries.] 

So, Mr. President, I feel deeply interested in this matter. A 
great blow has been struck at my State, and millions of acres, 
upon which we were recreating a new prosperity locally, have been 
withdrawn from the public domain. No man can take from it a 
stick of timber without being denounced as a thief; no man can 
go there to develop the mineral resources of Snohomish or King 
or any of those counties along the line of the Cascade Range; no 
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great railroad can cross the continent over those mountains, and, 
as suggested by the Senator from Wisconsin [Mr. Spooner] , no 
Bchoolhouse can be erected and no settler can come in. 

Mr. President, it is extremely unfortunate that the order of 
February 22, 1897, was made without consultation with, and with- 
out the knowledge of, the people most interested in this section. 
The order was ghastly in its effect. It does great injustice to thou- 
sands of people who have expended their time, their energy, their 
means in developing the mineral resources of my State under the 
laws of this country. And now to deprive them, by mere Execu- 
tive order, of their rights and property will work the gravest 
hardship to individuals and bankruptcy to whole communities. 
Ail we ask is justice. Will this Senate deny us that? 

* * * « * * 

Mr. WILSON. I shall be glad if I can have the attention of tho 
Senator from Iowa for one moment before he takes his seat, not 
to occupy the attention of the Senate long. I do not wish to be 
placed in a position rather collectively which I have not occupied. 

It is true that we met at the Department of the Interior. I never 
saw the original amendment until it was stated that it was agreed 
upon by substantially all, nor did I see the proposed change in the 
original amendment. 1 never saw the proposed change until it 
was shown to me yesterday afternoon by the Senator from South 
Dakota. It goes a little further, I will state frankly, than the con- 
versations which took place at the Department of the Interior 
would perhaps warrant. While I think personally a great mis- 
take has been made as to my State, while I think the order ought 
to be abrogated entirely, yet we are so unfortunately situated that 
we have to take what we can get. 

If the same condition of affairs prevailed in the State of Iowa, 
there would be a riot. They would have another Shay's rebellion 
in that State if the same condition of affairs prevailed there that 
exists in my State. 

Mr. ALLISON. Will the Senator allow me to interru]5t him? 

Mr. WILSON. With great pleasure. 

Mr. ALLISON. Does not the Senator know that there is now 
in process of execution orders which are intended — whether or 
not they will accomplish that result I do not know, becaiTse I have 
not seen them— to relieve his State of all the difficulties which he 
has so well portrayed here to-day? Are not the President of the 
United States and the Secretary of the Interior in sympathy with 
his views upon the subject? 

Mr. WILSON. I think that is true. I am satisfied that the 
President is in entire sympathy with me. I am satisfied that so 
is the Secretary of the Interior, who, in my judgment, although I 
have had only a brief experience with him, is one of the ablest 
and best men who have ever occupied that position, and I am glad 
to bear testimony to that fact. I thoiight at the time he was 
nominated for that high and honorable position that it was not a 
good thing to have a man from Manhattan Island, and I am glad 
to say that I have been agreeably disappointed in that respect. 

1 am not here to coerce anybody. I can not coerce an5'body. It 
is not in my power to coerce nor have I any power to coerce the 
President of the United States or the Secretary of the Interior. 
What I wish is some relief. I am satisfied that the chairman of 
the Committee on Appropriations is anxious to give us relief. I 
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think lie "wants to keep the letter and the ppirit of the contract. 
He says the amendment now offered was not nominated in the 
original bond. Is that true? 

Mr. ALLISON. It has been amended. 

Mr. WILSON. That is a different amendment. We want re- 
lief; we must have relief; and I am willing, so far as concerns the 
State that is most interested, to take what we in the West alv;ays 
have to do — what we can get. 

Mr. WILSON. May I ask the Senator from Delaware a question? 

Mr. GRAY. Certainly. 

Mr. WILSON. I have a good deal of faith in the judgment of 
the Senator from Delaware. It is practically admitted that there 
was but a slight examination of those forestry reservations by tlie 
scientific commission. 

Mr. GRAY. I do not know about that. The Senator may know. 
I only assume that a body of men of that character would perform 
their duty. They may, however, have neglected it. 

Mr. WILSON. They said in their report, and before the Secre- 
tary of the Interior, that they had a limited time to make the 
examination, that they had visited the land offices — and I will try 
to put the exact testimony into the Record, as I have it upon my 
desk — and made inquiry of individuals, and then had reported 
that their time was limited. Why make a forestry reservation in 
the State which I in part represent when we do not need to pre- 
serve the water? We have more water in that western slope, as 
the Senator knows, than we can take care of. We have an annual 
rainfall, as I said a while ago, of 108 inches. 

The two great rivers of the State can not be protected by the 
forests, because they have their sources in British Columbia. All 
the other rivers which flow directly into Puget Sound have their 
sources from glaciers. The only river that they said ought to 
have a supply of water is the Yakima River, on the eastern slope. 
When we irrigate on the eastern side, at the time we need water 
for irrigation, I should like to say, we have an abundant supply, 
millions of gallons of it going to waste. So there is absolutely no 
necessity for such a sweeiDing remedy as that of the Executive 
order of February 23. 

* * -x- * * * ■:«• 

Mr. WILSON. In the meantime, before the Senator takes his 
seat, will he allow me to ask him a question? 

Mr. GRAY. Certainly. 

Mr. WILSON. A remark was brought out relative to the sci- 
entific commission, which possibly places me in a wrong position 
regarding its members. I do not want to say anything unkind or 
unjust or imgenerous to those gentlemen. Far be it from my in- 
tention to do so; but I want to place in the Record, along the line 
of my interruption of the Senator from Delaware, the testimony 
of Professor Sergeant, where Commissioner Hermann asked hiia 
if he visited the reservations. Professor Sergeanfs reply was: 

We visited a great many of these territories. "We did not go around the 
boundaries of all of them. We got all the information we could by talking 
with peoi)le; also from the land office. We tried to leave out lands upon 
which claims have been established. We mention the number of approved 
claims in each reservation and they are comparatively small. You know it 
was impossible to travel over all that country in one summer. 
3271 



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That is the part we are criticising. In one county we have 4,500 
mineral locations, upon which $2,000,000 worth of work has been 
done. 

Professor Sergeant says — and we agree with him in that line; 
I want to do him justice; I do not want to do anybody in justice — 

My idea is to allow the app7'oving of mining claims in the forest reserva- 
tions anywhere. The idea is not to stop mining, but to improve and encour- 
age it. 

But the method and manner in which this order was made en- 
tirely destroys it in our judgment. Therefore he is with us in 
seeking to correct that order. 

* * * * * « * 

Mr. WILSON. Mr. President, I, in common with several of the 
Western Senators, regret that the Senator from Maryland [Mr. 
Gorman] made the point of order upon this amendment. It is a 
well-known fact, which has been circulated broadcast throughout 
the West, that we were to have relief upon the sundry civil bill, and 
there are many reasons why the people of the West should have 
relief. Among others that I overlooked tljis morning is the fact 
that in the reservation in the State of Washington already 157,000 
acres of land have been selected by the State in its grant of land 
for educational purposes. Another very serious question that 
will ultimately arise, unless some relief is afforded, is that a vast 
amount of litigation will occur over the odd sections within the 
40-mile strip on each side of the Northern Pacific Railroad in re- 
lation to its grant. 

I think it has been always held and construed by the courts that 
the grant of the Northern Pacific was a grant in prsesenti and at- 
tached eo instanti from Lake Siiperior to Puget Sound. Conse- 
quently there will be much litigation, much harassment over this 
part of the question. Whether our State will have to go and select 
its land in some other portion of the State than where those 157,000 
acres already selected for educational purposes are located is an- 
other question. There may be a little difference here, but I think 
the concensiis of a majority is that we should have some relief. 

I am not one of those who want to criticise what is called tlie 
' ' inner circle, " or the Appropriations Committee. I have received 
at their hands mtich favor, for which the distinguished chairman 
has my most profound consideration. I think they are doing the 
best they can. I think, perhaps, we ought to give a little ourselves. 
I do not like to give anything. I am from the West [laughter], 
and I should like to take all that is in sight and ask for more. I 
find that is quite prevalent in legislative matters in this part of 
the country also; but we can not, it seems, do so. Can not there 
be some little compromise that will relieve us all? 

The President, I am satisfied, wants to give us relief, and the 
Senator from Maryland — I doubt if he has any law upon the 
statute books of Maryland relative to the growth and encourage- 
ment of timber, as to which he is so solicitous about us, who have 
plenty of it — ought to withdraw his point of order and let the 
original amendment, favored by most of us, go through and afford 
the relief that we are especially entitled to. If we can not do that, 
if we are forced to join issues with our Eastern friends, who are 
so extremely solicitous for our happiness and our prosperity, and 
our growth and development, who control our incomings and our 
outgoings with such a delightful liberality upon their part, we 

£374 



shall have to fight it out and protect our own constituents and do 
the best we can. But the Western contingent is in favor of a little 
bit of compromise. 

All legislation, as has often been said, is a compromise; and I, 
for one, do not want to drop the bone while I am crossing this 
river. [Laughter.] I want my constituents to have some relief. 
I should like to repeal the entire order relative to reservations, 
but I am afraid we can not do that. Therefore, I would be glad 
to have the Senator from Maryland, who has given me such 
delightful attention when I have been appealing to him [laugh- 
ter] , withdraw his point of order. He is taking such a profound 
interest in this matter, and is listening to the debate pro and con 
with that eagerness and with that solicitude that he does upon all 
occasions, that I think he might withdraw his point of order. I 
am satisfied that he has not heard a single part of the request I 
have made, and therefore I will renew it, and see if he can not 
yield to it. 

Mr. GORMAN. I will state that I heard the greater portion of 
the request the Senator from Washington has made with such 
great force, and I am delighted to hear him. 

Mr. WILSOiSI'. The Senator from Maryland does me honor 
overmuch; but I am afraid I have made the usual impression upon 
the Senator from Maryland that I, unfortunately, always make. 
He does not seem to be hastening with that speed which would 
delight me to withdraw his point of order [laughter] and let U3 
adopt that which was agreed upon by all parties, by the Secretary 
of the Interior, by and with the understanding of the Chief Execu- 
tive, and by everybody throughout all the Western domain, that 
we shall have some relief. I think the Senator from Iowa nearest 
me [Mr. Allison] would like to see that adopted. He wants to 
give us relief. 

April 4, 1S9S. 

Mr. WILSON. Mr. President, I shall not occupy the attention 
of the Senate more than a moment. This question was pretty 
thoroughly discussed in the last Congress. The conditions that 
prevail in the State that I in part represent are of such a charac- 
ter that I am constrained, however high my esteem may be for the 
Secretary of the Interior, if it comes to a vote to vote for the com- 
mittee amendment. 

One or two observations by the Senator from New Hampshire 
might be answered by the statement that in the forestry reserves 
now many of the settlers are abandoning their homes. Settle- 
ments are made in advance of surveys, and new settlers will not 
go into a new country and settle there unless they can have the 
hope that their friends and relatives can follow them and settle 
around them. 

An examination of this map [exhibiting] will show that in the 
State of Washington they have erected around the State almost 
what might be called a Spanish trocha. In the Olympic Forestry- 
Reservation we have 2,188,000 acres withdrawn from settlement. 
In the county of Klamath, a county organized and fully equipxjed, 
they have withdrawn over 900,000 acres of the 1,000,000 which 
constitute that county. In the county of Jelierson, on Puget 
Sound, they have withdrawn 84 per cent of all the land in the 
county. 
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10 

Mr. MASON. I wish to ask the Senator from Washington a 
question for information! Under what process do they withdraw 
the land? "Will the Senator explain it? 

Mr. WILSON. It is done under an act of Congress authorizing 
the President of the United States to withdraw certain timber 
lands, Government lands, for the purpose designated in the act, 
to be known as forest reserves. It was an act passed, I think, in 
ISyO. I am not certain as to the date. 

Mr. PETTIGREW. March 7, 1891. 

Mr. WILSON. The act was passed in 1891. We had before 
that act one reservation in our State. We now have three, known 
as the Washington, the Pacific, and the Olympic, and they com- 
prise an area larger than the State of Massachusetts. In the 
Washington Forestry Reserve, when the debate was in Congress a 
year or so ago, I showed that we had over 5,000 mineral locations, 
tiijon which $8,000,000 worth of work had already been done. By 
proper examination they could take the Olympic Forest Reserve 
and make a reservation there of from 800,000 to 1,000,000 acres 
and probably not affect any settlers or anybody. 

I am told that sometimes these reservations are made for the 
purpose of reserving the water supply. This could not possibly 
have been the reason for the reservations in western Washington , 
as we have an annual rainfall on the western side of the Cascade 
range that averages about 83 inches per annum, and in some places 
in the Olympic Forest Reserve it is even greater than that, so that 
a reservation of the watershed was hardly necessary. In the 
Washington Forestry Reserve all of our streams are supplied from 
the glaciers, and it was not necessary in that respect. The Pacific 
Forestry Reserve would have been all right under the original with- 
drawal, as some of the water rights on the eastern side of the 
mountain are used for irrigation purposes. 

Mr, STEWART. Could they not adopt a plan that would re- 
serve the reservoir sites and use the water for irrigating purposes? 

Mr. WILSON. Oh, no; you can not affect the irrigation in 
that section of the country at all, because in the season of the 
year when you desire water for irrigating purposes we have the 
largest supply of water. The water is not low on the eastern side 
of the mountains until September and October. All the streams 
are full in the months of May, June, and July, when water is 
used for irrigation purposes. Therefore the withdrawal of the 
forestry reserves does not in any manner affect the water supply 
60 far as those reservations are concerned. 

Mr. STEWART. The Senator from Colorado stated that they 
wanted to use water for irrigating purposes in the mountains 
connected with a reservation and they would not let them use it 
for that purpose, and would not allow them to go there. I have 
heard complaints of that kind in regard to several other places. 
The idea of reserving it to preserve the water and not use the 
•water, it seems to me, shows how intelligently the matter is man- 
aged by people in this part of the country who know nothing about 
the situation out there. 

Mr. WILSON. I had hoped to have a letter here and have it 
read from a citizen who is a resident within the forestry reserve 
in Klamath County; but I did not think the subject would come 
up to-day, and I shall take opportunity to present it to-morrow. 

There is another matter in connection with this subject, and at 
the proper time 1 shall move to recede from the committee amend- 

3274 



11 

ment. If these forestry reserves are to be preserved, there must 
he some authority under the Secretary of the Interior to desig- 
nate the men who are to be employed. You must lodge that au- 
thority somewhere. If we are to have forestry reserves, and if 
we are to employ men to put out forest fires and to guard the 
reservations, we certainly do not want to be restrained by having 
to hunt up a civil-service man to engage in that occupation. 

I think that the committee amendment ought to be receded 
from in view of the fact that there is small employment for those 
men. It is only for three or four or five months during the year. 
They will not be emploj-ed during the winter. Their employ- 
ment is not necessary then. There ought to be a place where they 
could be designated quickly and certainly. It seems to me that 
if the item for the protection and administration of forestry 
reserves is to go into the bill, the authority should be lodged with 
the Secretary of the Interior to designate the men who are to 
take charge of them. Therefore at the proper time and with the 
consent of the chairman of the committee, I shall move that the 
Senate recede from the amendment in line 21, on page 67. 

I hope that the amendment brought in by the committee may 
be agreed to, and that at some time in the future in making these 
reservations they may be designated with a due regard for the 
settlers of the various States and the welfare of commerce. 



^ April 5, 1S9S. 

% Mr. WILSON. Mr. President, on yesterday when this matter 
* was under discussion I had called attention to the condition of 
"'* affairs prevailing in the Olympic Forestry Reservation and to the 
fact that 82 per cent of the land in Clallam County had been with- 
drawn from settlement. I stated that I had received a letter from 
a gentleman residing within the Olympic Forestry Reservation 
which I desired to present to the Senate to-day. I read the same 
for the information of our New England friends. It seems to 
throw about as much light on the conditions prevailing in those 
forestry reservations as anything I can present. This letter is 
written March 23, 1898, from Quillayute, Wash., a portion of the 
lands which have been surveyed in the Olympic Forestry Reserva- 
tion, lying contiguous and adjacent to the Pacific Ocean. This 
gentleman writes to me that the people there are very much inter- 
ested in whatever legislation may take place in regard to this 
matter. He says: 

"We already understand that tLo settler does not lose his claim unless he 
abandons it; but although the land already filed upon is not wrested from the 
homesteader, it is nevertheless rendered more or less valueless by the isola- 
tion that the reserve entails. As the reserve now stands our people are 
practically imprisoned, their property in a sense confiscated by being ren- 
dered almost valueless. 

Reservation barriers have arrested development, and our communities are 
as completely isolated as if quarantined on account of some malignant (Jis- 
ease. Thus thousands of families are deprived of making homes upon the 
rich areas of agricultural land that should, as it seems to us, be open to set- 
tlement, and especially that this land was once opened— twenty-four town- 
ships in Clallam County alone having been surveyed and quite extensively 
settled upon. Therefore many of our people have left and are still leaving 
their homes and investments in despair and because they see the hope of 
progress killed. 

It gives me pain when I meet people who have in good faith settled here 
and there, and in not a few instances somewhat remote from the older com- 
munities in order that they might have the more room for friend and kin- 
dred, and in some cases the dear old parents, who were soon to follow from 
3374 



12 

the Western, Middle, or New England States, or oven from over the sea— it 
gives nie pain to find that the purposes of their hearts and hands have been 
broken off and that they with sad hearts are abandoning their little all, 
which has been gathered by years of hard and unremitting toil. These poor 
citizens of our country, when asked to stay by the homestead and await 
future and fuller developments, answer with a forlorn look. 

To do so is only to be left behind prison walls in a country from which our 
kindred and friends who would live among us and help to develop the coun- 
try are banned from entering. Had the commission done its duty, and noth- 
ing but its duty, it might have been quite different. The members of that 
commission are no doubt good men and competent, but in the case of the 
Olympic reserve I have abundant and good reason for believing they did not 
do the work assigned them thoroughly. I am sati-sfied they learned little 
and saw less of our agi'icultural area; without doubt there were over 3,000,000 
acres of this reserve upon which they never set foot at all. 

We all sincerely hope' and trust "that some action may be taken by the 
Congressof the United States, so that a grateful pe ople will be able to rejoice. 
Sincerely, yours, 

R. TV. FLETCHER, 
Parsonage^ QuiUuyutc, M'aslnngfou. 

I think this gentleman is the Methodist pastor at Quillayute, a 
little hamlet that is now located within the Olympic forest re- 
serve. No words that I could iitter would add anything to what 
has been said in this communication addressed to me. I should 
have liked to have had it yesterday, in order that the Senate might 
have had the full benefit of the situation which not only prevails 
in that reserve but throughout the section I liaA^e the honor in 
part to represent. 



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